Volunteers Needed For Christmas Bird Count Around Zion and Kanab

The National Audubon Society hosts a scientific bird count ever winter. This season marks the 113^th anniversary of the event.

In Utah, counts will be conducted on conducted on Dec. 14 and 15 in the Kanab area and on Dec. 15 near the Kolob Canyons section of Zion Park, near Cedar City. Volunteers are needed in both locations.

The counts will be held on BLM land. The BLM provided the news release below:

Come One Come All to the Christmas Bird Count

Cedar City, Utah—Do you enjoy watching birds? Would you call yourself a birder? Or would you like to learn more about birds? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should join the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Dec. 14 and 15, 2012, for the annual Christmas Bird Count.

Hosted by the National Audubon Society, the Christmas Bird Count is a yearly bird census conducted nationwide during the holiday season. This year marks the 113th Christmas Bird Count, and everyone—families, students, volunteers, birders, biologists and scientists—is invited to participate. During the counts, bird species are identified and information is recorded on a checklist that provides data crucial to the study of the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America.

On Dec. 14 and 15, you can help BLM-Utah wildlife biologists identify and record counts of bird species on your public lands in southern Utah. On Friday, Dec. 14, Wildlife Biologist Lisa Church from the Kanab Field Office will be counting birds in the Kanab area; anyone interested in helping Lisa should meet at 8 a.m. at the Kanab Field Office, 669 South Highway 89A, Kanab, Utah. On Saturday, Dec. 15, Wildlife biologist Sheri Whitfield from the Cedar City Field Office will be counting birds near Zion National Park; anyone interested in helping Sheri, should meet at 7:45 a.m. in the parking lot immediately outside the Zion National Park west entrance.

Don’t miss out on your chance to participate in the longest-running wildlife census in the United States and to contribute to the scientific study of bird populations living in your backyard. Please contact Sheri at (435)865-3065 or Lisa at (435)644-1273 for additional information on the Christmas Bird Count and how you can get involved.

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The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.